Publicis' Rosetta, IBM Team For Ambitious 'Commerce' Initiative

Commerce seems to be on the minds of cutting edge digital shops, and the big agency holding companies that own them. R/GA just recruited a top 1-800-Flowers exec to run its commerce initiatives
(see earlier post), and now Publicis is announcing a deal between its Rosetta agency and IBM to do some really ambitious things. Stay tuned for some news analysis, but this is what Publicis initially
has to say:

"Working together, the companies are uniquely positioned to drive the future of eCommerce by redefining the role of the transaction in the brand experience. The partnership
combines Publicis Groupe's deep experience in consumer insights, technology and building a broad eCommerce ecosystem around transactions with IBM's technology, expertise and business process
innovation to serve the needs of today's Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) who want to align their organizations and purchase decisions around integrated content
and commerce.

"Publicis Groupe's Rosetta unit plans a global expansion to capture a larger share of the growing demand for Commerce-related technology and services. Commerce-related
revenues Rosetta has derived from the 10+ year IBM/Rosetta relationship have grown 100% in 2012 alone and are expected to triple over the next three years.

"Over the next
three years, Publicis Groupe plans to establish four global Commerce hubs, beginning with an expansion of its current U.S. hub on the West Coast, and then launch new centers in Western Europe, China
and Latin America. Each hub will consist of a team of professionals skilled in the IBM Smarter Commerce offering portfolio. The Publicis Rosetta team will work in concert with a local IBM team and
local agency professionals to deliver software and services with IBM Smarter Commerce related offerings for clients.

"Publicis Groupe breaks down the nearly $600MM global market opportunity by
2015 as: approximately $390MM in North America; $130MM in Western Europe (France, UK and Germany); $30MM in China; and $30MM Latin America (primarily Chile and Brazil).

"As part of the
expanded focus on the global market, Publicis Groupe will continue to deliver commerce solutions for leading brands at a consistent and global scale while integrating the following critical
components: a full life-cycle strategy powered by customer-centric market intelligence; world-class multi-channel customer experience and creative; and enterprise-level tech strategy, execution and
servicing; and continuous product-based innovation.

"IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative, launched in March 2011 is an approach designed to accelerate key business processes covering the
marketing, sales, commerce, supply chain and customer service functions of business clients to help meet the needs of the increasingly demanding digital customer. The partnership will offer IBM
software that supports Web analytics, digital marketing and eCommerce, including product lines such as IBM Coremetrics, Unica, DemandTec, Tealeaf, ILOG, Cognos and SPSS, among others."

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